First Night in Big Boy Bed

So...it happened. Cooper was ready. Philip was ready. Mama was not ready. Even though we weren't completely finished putting together or moving Cooper into his new room, the bed was ready, which meant, to Philip and Cooper, that it was open for sleeping. I was getting ready to put Cooper down when suddenly Philip asked, "Coop, you want to sleep in your big boy room tonight?" The next thing I know Cooper and Philip are emptying out the crib and carrying all of Cooper's sleeping goodies to his new room--blankie, Big Elephant, Gus, Ooh Ooh, cozy blanket, and, yes, a hammer. I was caught in the hallway between both rooms with my mouth open, completely unable to say anything besides, "uh...uh...wait...umm...what?!"

This is what Philip looked like carrying all of Coop's goodies into the new room.

Cooper was so, so excited about this new bed and new room! He instantly jumped into bed and went straight to his train buckets to pick out a book to read. He asked Philip to lay down with him and read and there was Mommy, still standing in the hallway, not sure what just happened. And then came the tears. I kept thinking...but I didn't get one last picture of him sleeping in his crib!

Cooper's nursery suddenly had a different feel. It felt empty. And it was hitting me that another little boy was going to have that room and sleep in that crib, which of course is a blessing and I'm grateful to have it, but it was just hitting me kind of hard.

Coop and Philip settled into the big bed to read books and I tried to dry my tears enough to snap some photos. They were as cozy as they could be.

After Philip finished reading, Coop said he wanted Mommy to lay down with him. Little did he know I probably needed that more than he did, so I was happy to oblige. I told him how proud I was of him for being a big boy and he said he was excited. And then came more tears. After laying down with Cooper for a bit, I told him I was going to do some things in the kitchen and I'd be back to check on him. I reminded him that he needed to stay in bed, otherwise he'd have to go back to his crib. As soon as I shut the door, I heard him crawling out of bed. He opened the door to see me standing there, but I just turned him around, put him back in bed and reminded him about his sticker chart (more on that later). I said good night and left the room again. He got out of bed only one other time, but after I tucked in back in for the second time, he stayed put and soon fell asleep.

I went in to check on him and saw this. He was peacefully sleeping under Big Elephant. I, on the other hand, was still a mess. Tears tears tears. And they just wouldn't stop. Thank you pregnancy hormones...right?

Cooper slept ALL night and woke up happy at 8:00 a.m. I was sure I was going to hear little footsteps coming down the hallway as soon as I heard him through the monitor, so I just laid in bed and waited. I could hear him talking, but didn't hear any signs of him getting out of bed. I wondered if this could possibly be true? At 8:30 a.m. I finally decided to go in there and see what he was doing. I found him completely happy and SO proud of himself for sleeping in his big boy bed. He had just been playing and reading in his bed, waiting for me to come in there.
I went on and on and on about how proud of him I was and what a big boy he was that he stayed in bed and slept all night! He was proud of himself, too. Cheering, clapping and jumping up and down! And then, I started crying. Again. Through my tears I said, "I'm crying because I'm just so proud of you." Cooper responded by saying, "Don't cry, Mama. I big boy!" Sigh.

Neglecting the Blog

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry I have neglected you recently. We've been busy busy painting, arranging, shopping, hanging, moving, cleaning, and WORKING on a new big boy room for this little monkey.

I promise I'm working on posts and will have lots of updates coming soon! In the meantime., here is a little glimpse of our work in progress...

Step 1--Paint
When Cooper walked into this room and first saw all of the furniture gone, he put his hands on his cheeks and exclaimed, "Oh no! What happen my big boy bed?!" We've really been talking up how this room would be his big boy room and we would make it a fun, new room for him. It's sweet to me that he really thought he might be sleeping in the Anthro-dressed bed. I assured Cooper that his room would be way cooler than how it was before!

Chris volunteered to help paint...yes, please!

"What Daddy doing in there?!"

Cooper entertained himself in the hallway by sweeping and eating a brownie, which he found in the kitchen and helped himself to the bag. I came around the corner just as he was biting into the largest brownie a two-year-old has ever eaten.

Step 2--Check out the bedding
As soon as the paint was dry and the room was cleaned up, Philip moved in Cooper's new mattresses and draped the duvet cover on top. It was starting to take shape! And as soon as Cooper saw this new "bed" he jumped right in and begged Philip to read to him. He didn't have to do much arm twisting.

Step 3--Put the bed frame together
Cooper was so excited to help Philip build the bed frame. He got all of his own tools and would ask Philip, "You need this, Daddy? What we do next?" Or he'd pick up the instructions and say, "Hmm...what this say?" He was loving this!

Sweet love pat for Philip as he said, "Good job, Daddy!".

As we completed each step along the way, Cooper was so positive and encouraging telling us "ooohhh, it looks nice! Good job, Mommy! I like big boy room!" I kept reminding him that it's not finished yet, and it's only going to get better. His excitement has been so sweet and genuine and exactly what keeps me motivated to make the room perfect for him.

So, Blog, I promise to get back on track with my posts. I've got lots of fun stories to share!

Morning Walk Distractions, Part 2

Yesterday's walk was cool with the digger, but today's walk was a little slice of heaven for a certain little boy--a bulldozer, mowers, dump truck, AND trash truck. All in front of ONE house.
The bulldozer went back and forth between a big pile of cement and the dump truck, each time dumping a huge pile of rock into the truck. As the bulldozer backed up, Cooper would say, "beep beep beep...I backing up. Watch out!" Then as the bulldozer dumped the cement into the dump truck, I heard, "Go go go!! Good job! Yea!! Good job!!"
We sat and watched the trucks working for a l-o-n-g time. But, the beauty of being at home means that we didn't have anywhere better to be at that moment. Cooper was having a blast watching these trucks, so I wasn't about to try to scoot him out of there.Just before we were about to leave, a trash truck pulled up. More cheering and a lot more smiles came from the stroller, so we decided to stay and watch for awhile...again.

Tornado? Cloud Circulation? What?!

May 24, about 8 p.m. This is what the radar looked like. I had just gotten home from coaching a running class, the tornado sirens were going off, hail was booming down, and it was storming pretty hard outside.

See the deepest purple color inside the purple...that's our area. As we heard "heavy cloud circulation...if you are in this area, take cover." I rounded up Cooper and Drake while Philip got the cedar closet ready. My mom happened to read a news story earlier this same day about how kids should wear a bike helmet if you have to take cover from a tornado. It can help protect their little noggins if things come crashing down...literally. So, I also grabbed Coop's bike helmet and got him settled in the closet.

Cooper wasn't phased at all by all the noise and chaos. In fact, I'm pretty sure he was having fun. He had Toy Story playing on the iPod and was cozy in the closet with his puppy and blankie. He was fine! I sat in the hallway eating my dinner and watching the radar while Philip was checking outside and listening to the radio.

After maybe 20 minutes or so, the purple section on the radar had passed us by and we knew we were officially in the clear. Glad we didn't get any closer to an actual tornado, but it sure made for an exciting and adventurous night!

Morning Walk Distractions

With baby weight attaching itself to my body these days, Cooper and I have been going on a good, long walk almost every morning. We see lots and lots of mowers and leaf blowers and construction crews working on houses, but today, we saw this.

We sat on the curb for at least 10 or 15 minutes watching this digger. It would pound the sidewalk, break it into big pieces, then move the cement chucks to a pile. My little man was mesmerized! He kept saying, "Whoa!! See that, Mama?! It's so loud! Whoa!!" And when I told him it was time to keep walking, he would put up his finger and say, "Just one more minute. Just one more. Please? PLEASE?!"

He is all boy! (PS: I love that he was only wearing his Spiderman jammie shirt and a diaper. It's his typical walk attire and perfect for a hot summer morning!)

Our Backyard Just Got a Lot Cooler

Because of this...
Four levels, picnic table, two swings, two-person swing, rock climbing wall, slide, lookout scope, steering wheels, pulley with bucket (added by Philip)...pretty much awesome.

Philip and I had been casually looking and talking about buying a used playscape for a couple of months now, but we just hadn't found the right one for the right price...until a couple of weeks ago when one kind of fell into our lap. Basically a family in our neighborhood was selling their three-month-old playscape because their new house didn't have room in the backyard for it, and they were asking 1/3 of the price they paid. The second I saw the email come through, I showed Philip the pictures and within 20 minutes, he was on his way to their house with a check in hand!

That weekend it only took Philip and six of his strongest friends, a trailer, leveling part of our backyard, tightening a few bolts, detaching and reattaching parts, and pretty much one full day to get the playscape moved and ready for Cooperman. Phew!

Cooper spent the day with Gammi and Poppi and when he got back home Philip met him at the front door to tell him there was a surprise in the back yard. The look on Cooper's face when he saw his new "playground!!" was priceless--part shock, part confusion, part overwhelmed by the tools, big ladder, and oh yea, the fort (as we are now calling it)!
He was quickly off to climb, slide, jump, swing, and play, play, play!!

At one point, he turned to Philip and yelled, "Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank YOU!!" I think that meant he was happy.

Just before the below picture was taken, Cooper was "coaching" me down the slide, "You can do it, Mama! Come on! I'll catch you!!" He gave me a big congratulatory hug when I finally went down.

We've already had several picnics in the fort, but Cooper's favorite are with his Daddy.

Oh the fun that is to come!